Kingdom Hearts: The Council of Keys: Book 2
by cairparavel95
Summary: Having now reached what he believes is one of the "Distant Worlds", a swamp/jungle land inhabited by Shadow the Hedgehog and an army of gun wielding heartless. More info to come later. Rated T: Action
1. Prologue

Prologue

The last time you heard from me, I was flying into a keyhole shaped black hole, all the while questioning whether I would live or not. You may be surprised, though not more surprised then me, that I actually survived that catastrophic experience. Actually, I ended up on the strangest world. 'Strange how?' You ask? For one, I ran into some sort of black and red, spiky, talking animal while I was walking through a swamp land infested with gun wielding robots who had an intent to kill. For two, those gun wielding robots had now surrounded myself and the spiky guy. I sure hoped that this little guy was as tough as he looked.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I quickly summoned my keyblade to my side and readied for battle. Jumping towards one of them, I brought my keyblade down upon it. I didn't expect what happened next. Instead of shorting out and exploding like I expected it to, it dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. That's when I realized that these weren't your everyday run of the mill robots. They were Heartless.

I fought long and hard, glancing over my shoulder at times to see how my spiky friend was doing, but they just kept coming! At that moment, I saw a glow out of the corner of my eye. Finishing off the Heartless in front of me, I turned to see the little guy holding a green gem in his hand.

"Chaos control!" I heard him shout. In that instant, I saw a bright flash of light and time seemed to slow as the little guy finished off the remaining Heartless. Shortly afterwards, time resumed its normal pace. I looked around expecting more Heartless to appear, but none came.

Turning around, I saw the little guy staring at me.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"I could ask you the same. What are you doing here?" The little guy asked.

I thought for a moment. 'Well, he did save me.' I thought to myself, 'What harm could it do?'

"I'm Axel." I stated. "I'm here looking for my dad and my friends."

"hmm… I'm Shadow the Hedgehog." He said, and turned to leave.

"Wait, Shadow." I called after him. Slowly, he turned around.

"What?" He asked, clearly irritated.

"Is there any chance that you could teach me that move you used? What was it? Chaos control?"

Shadow just stood there with his eyes closed as if he were thinking. After a short period of time, he opened his eyes and replied. "Not a chance." I hung my head. That magnificent power would have very helpful in the battles to come. "That is," Shadow said, "not unless you can find a Chaos Emerald." My face lit up.

"So, where do I find one?" I inquired.

"It's only a hunch, but there could be a Chaos Emerald hidden in the depths of this jungle. I'll come with you, because without me, there's no way you'll survive." Shadow turned once again to leave and then looked back at me over his shoulder. "Oh, one last thing. There's no way you'll be able to keep up with me in that form. Here," Shadow tossed the Chaos Emerald to me, "use this to change yourself into something… faster."

I held the Chaos Emerald in my hand and quickly combined it with the magic of my keyblade. There was a huge flash of light and the next thing I knew, I had transformed into a redish-brown hedgehog. "Now this is more like it!" I declared as Shadow and I took off together in search of the Chaos Emerald.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Unbeknownst to Axel, a man sat hidden in the treetops watching his every move. This man was Cethin. No longer possessed by Mesna, he wished for one thing only: the safety of all the worlds. And since Axel didn't care what happened to the worlds, he would have to go. **

**Cethin saw a glow out of the corner of his eye and jumped out of the tree to investigate. Upon reaching the source of the glow, Cethin discovered one of the gems that Shadow had called a "Chaos Emerald". 'huh…' Cethin thought to himself, 'I wonder if I could make it work.' Cethin stooped over and picked up the gem from its place. Standing up, he uttered the words, "Chaos control!" Almost instantaneously, everything around him slowed down. **

**Not impressed with the effect, Cethin deactivated Chaos Control. "It doesn't do anything that Stop can't. But, this gem does have some value." Cethin quickly combined the power of the Emerald with the power of his keyblade, Bane of Darkness, transforming him into a black hedgehog. 'I shouldn't have any trouble catching them now.' Cethin thought to himself as he ran after them.**


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Wow! I've never moved this fast before!" I exclaimed as a ran upside-down through a loop. The feeling was great! With the wind in my face, I felt like nothing could stop me!

After running for through more loops and around many bends, we finally arrived at the temple. I turned around to see all of the distance we had covered in that short time and I saw something that I didn't expect or want to see… Cethin.

I ran up to the temple entrance and saw Axel standing with his keyblade in hand. I frowned as I tried to think of some way I could stop him without having to use force. Nothing came to mind, so I covered the distance between us.

When I was about ten feet in front of him, I stopped. "You know Axel, you don't have to do this. There is another way. A way that won't put all of the worlds into danger." I said. Axel didn't appear to buy it. "And what would that other way be, Cethin?" I could here the rage in his voice. I began to answer, but Axel spoke again. "You know what? I don't need to listen to you! You took them from me in the first place!" I saw a black fog begin to swirl around Axel. "Axel! Don't! If you let your anger carry on like this, it will unleash Mesna and he will hold the worlds most powerful keyblade master under his control!"

Axel calmed down slightly after I said this. "You're right. Then there'd be no hope for Lior and the others." I felt a wave of relief, glad that this fit of rage was over. "So. I guess I'll just have to kill you while retaining my calm." Axel raised his keyblade and charged towards me. I summoned my key just in time and blocked his flurry of blows. I hurled myself over his head and landed behind him unleashing three consecutive strikes at his back. Two were blocked, but the third found its and Axel stumbled forward. I saw this opening as an opportunity and dealt one more blow to knock him off his feet.

Now with Axel on the ground in front of me, I spoke again. "Are you going to listen now?" I exclaimed. Axel nodded his head slowly. "Good. Contrary to what Aros told you, there is another way into the distant worlds. The elder members of the C.o.K. knew it. They called it 'The Bypass'." Axel glared at me, suspicion in his eyes. "Wait, how did you find out about it if only the elders knew about it?" I sighed. This guy didn't pay very close attention. "I believe I said that 'the elders knew it'. I didn't say that they were the only ones." Realization dawned in his eyes, so I continued. "Although, outside of the C.o.K. it's only spoken of in legends and myths. But I know for a fact that it doesn't destroy worlds when you pass from the Near worlds to the Distant worlds. If you come with me, I'll take you to The Bypass." I held out my hand to help him up. He looked at my hand, then at me, then back at my hand. He took it and I pulled him up.

"You know," Axel began, "Just because I'm coming with you doesn't mean that I trust you or even forgive you for what you've done." I rolled my eyes. "He doesn't pay attention at all." I muttered under my breath. Axel, who had turned his back on me, whipped around and glared at me. After a long period of glaring at me, he spoke. "I have some business with Shadow and then I'll be right with you." I nodded and sat down on one of the steps leading up to the temple entrance as Axel hurried inside with Shadow.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Upon entering the temple, I discovered that it was quite dark. For the first few minutes I struggled to see, but after that my eyes adjusted to the darkness. "Now," I jumped what seemed like ten feet into the air when Shadow spoke to me out of nowhere. Shadow stared at me for a moment and then continued, "When you find the Emerald all you need to do is think of the effect of Chaos Control, say the words, and it will happen." I scratched my head. Surely there was more to it than that! "That's it? Just think and say the words?" Shadow nodded. "Yep."

The rest of their journey was taken in silence. After walking for what seemed like an hour, I saw a glow a few meters away. Relieved to finally see some light after our trek in the dark, I ran towards it.

The Emerald sat on a pedestal in the center of a circle of pillars. I bent over to grab it, but as I did, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I pulled back from the Emerald and glanced around. "Shadow? Is that you?" I looked back at where I had come from, but the glow of the Emerald had caused my eyes to lose their night vision.

Being the brave keyblade master that I am, I hurriedly snatched the Emerald and turned to run when I heard something slam down onto the ground with a heavy crack. I turned around to see what it was and saw an orange glow rapidly approaching. 'Now,' I thought to myself as I realized that the orange glow was a fireball rushing towards me, 'is the time to run like heck!' I turned to run, but a stone caught my foot and I fell face first onto the temple floor. 'Dang.' I thought to myself, 'looks like it ends here.' I realized that I was more worried now than I had been flying through space on that chunk of Disney Castle. I suppose it was because death by slowly burning is a lot more painful than an instant black out with death close on its heels. But… it felt like something more.


End file.
